When Rodolfo started Planswell, he thought it would be a piece of cake.
(Watch time — 4:19)
After he was assigned his first few households, however, he realized that wasn’t exactly the case. “I’m going to need to put in more work.”
He started really listening to the households he was calling, taking notes, asking follow up questions. What he discovered was that “100% of my new clients this year would never have left their advisors if they had listened to them.”
They’d either been sold products under the wrong impression or the risks they were taking weren’t aligned with their comfort level — their advisors were just selling them products, not listening to their needs.
“Listening,” Rodolfo notes, “is easy.”
But you only get the opportunity to listen if you’re making your dials. Success “is not something that happens overnight.”
This year, Rodolfo’s goal is to acquire $10 million in AUM. “Do I care how many phone calls I have to make to get that?” Of course he doesn’t.
And while he acknowledges it’s unlikely, that could happen from just one call. Planswell households often underrepresent their assets on our discovery form.
Rodolfo spent a couple weeks chasing a radiologist who reported $200,000 in AUM. When he finally got them on the phone (persistence does, in fact, pay off), they acknowledged they actually had closer to $5 million.
Rodolfo’s advice for new advisors:
- Smile before you dial — they can really hear it in your voice!
- Treat everyone as though they’re Warren Buffet. You never know how much they have (or might acquire) for you to manage.
- Planswell’s system works: read everything, watch the videos. Even if you think you know, assume you don’t. Assume you’re starting from scratch and build a foundation.
